Monday, April 23, 2012

When you think of Louisiana ~ you think of crawfish, alligators, spicy food and now thanks to George Rodrigue ; "blue dogs". I remember when I first saw a "blue dog" painting and was told they were famous..."really", I thought! My five year old can draw that ...right? Now, a print
sells for $15,000.00 and an original...who knows how much!

But, who needs an original George Rodrigue Blue Dog when you have.....

If not, click on the above link so you will understand what I am about to describe to you!

This mild mannered pen was just hanging around minding it's business until.....

D.D. (short for Devil Dog, which is Cajun's nick-name when she is BAD!!!!!!) unbeknownst to

little ole me, found it.....

I know that it was her because of the two strands of hair that are stuck on the tip (or what used to be the tip) of the ball point pen. I cleverly extracted those hairs and sent them off for DNA analysis..and much to her dismay....I nailed her......just call me Detective Layne!

The big, blue tail had nothing, nothing at all to do with my findings...it was

The only bright side to this adventure, in addition to having a priceless, valued piece of living art - a real living, blue dog (top that one George!) is that now I can really spot Devil Dog when she is
plotting her next devious caper.

Number one :: She always holds her tale very high, and now she is very easy to spot!

See what I mean...here she is, getting into some kind of trouble in the bushes and .....

Here comes Libby to join her...now can you tell who is who? Yep...I think I get the last laugh here!....Go with me on this one...it makes me feel better!

Anyways, what has been going on in the last three weeks since I have last blogged????...

Well ~ Easter ~ but that is a post on it's own...coming soon. It was too much to include here!

Lots of children,family and fun! Followed by a five day trip to view colleges for Sara ~ so that is where we will jump in!

Ellen tagged along ~ at age thirteen, she will have seen more colleges and know where she wants to go by the time she is a Freshman! Here we are at University of Richmond -

a fave of all of ours!

I actually packed light for this trip and left my Nikon behind so only have IPhone pics.

Six colleges in four days equals a whirlwind trip but it was very productive!

And we had FUN!

The trip ended back at Elizabeth's college and we were able to visit with her for the weekend before we flew back. The sisters had some nice bonding time!

And we were able to spend more time and get to know Elizabeth's friends. Since she is so far away, I am glad to be able spend a little time getting to know all the friends she tells me about!

Once we returned to the land of Louisiana ~ life started to return to normal ~ sort of...

I am starting weekly infusions to help my immune system get back to normal...

Sara WON our district race in the 800 ~ that was exciting and unexpected! I didn't have my big camera but managed to snap this photo with the IPhone right after she crossed the finish line.

We were so proud of her!

My garden is coming along....hold on to your seat girls, that

hunk-a-hunk out there is taken ~ sorry! Gary made my rows

and we are trying some ecological, breathable material to keep out the weeds this year. Hope it works as the weeds were bad and the heat even worse last year! I gave up weeding as I think I would have become a dehydrated, shrunken corpse in the 103 degree heat last summer.

I hope this stuff works!

On the menu ~ basil, several types of tomatoes, several types of beans, eggplants, "yard long beans", cantaloupe, squash and corn....and whatever else I decide to plant. I just like looking at Gary "Hoe a Row"! Had to say that ~ made you smile!

We came back to lots of baby bunnies...four babies are at the "fun age"!

So cute - how can we sell them Ellen? As long as she doesn't name them, she can sell them....it is when she names them that it is all over with!

This is such an adorable age....

It is truly hard to say which one is the cute one out of this batch...

However, the black one is working it's magic on us and

actually, Ellen named it, so I am not sure if it will stay or go.

OKAY ~ now that we have had our fill of "bunny cuteness" are you ready for this...
really ~ are you ready...because is it GROSS ~ incredibly Disgusting!
I hope you have a strong stomach. This is what happens when you happen to own lots of animals.Life teaches lessons.
I will end my blog with some more baby bunny cuteness but this story must be told; so if you are squeamish, skip the next few pics, and even if you are not squeamish, you might want to skip the next few pics. My blog is about documenting the adventures of life ~ good and bad ~ the girls probably won't be happy that this is on here, but here goes...Our adorable white rabbit...Tannenbaum - (he is a white Lionhead that was born last December), so we named him "Tannenbaum". Anyway, he is somewhat of an escape artist, and if you don't batten down the hatches of his cage, he can "jimmy" them open and escape. We were thrilled to find him about a week ago, when we returned from our
trip , as he had been gone for about a month! All was good for the first week, until Ellen noticed that he was very lethargic....and he had a sore on his neck. I suggested that she take him inside and give him a bath....I was outside when the shrieks started. "Mommy come quick...there are larvae on him"! I was in the yard, and thinking...ugghhh...fly larvae have gotten into a wound....When I got inside, I could see that the scab had come off the wound on the neck and it was very large, and I was immediately very concerned. As I pealed away the remaining scab, I could see something moving in the wound...but it was large and kind of white. Either a worm or a gland. I was nervous to touch it, so I went to the all knowing, ever helpful, source of information in our town...our local feed and seed. By now it was about 4:50 on Saturday so we barely made it before they closed and we ran in with the wet rabbit, wrapped in a towel & Ellen with tears streaming down her face. Immediately, the owners huddled around, conferred and decreed: It was a

Wolf Worm....not only a Wolf worm, but a vicious, burrowing Wolf worm......they informed us that we could try to put Hydrogen peroxide on it and see if it would try to back out, but they actually didn't have a lot of advice after that. That's OK...that is what the Internet is for...basically, it said, to take the animal to the vet ~ but at 6:00 on Saturday, that was out of the question and by now Ellen was really beside herself. I decided that I was going to extract this worm...never mind that the Internet said it was septic if you didn't extract it whole...I just knew I could do it. I don't know why but I knew I could. I got scissors, tweezers, and other paraphernalia, hot water, rags, etc and got to work. Ellen was my assistant. We cut away all the dead tissue to make the hole as large as possible ~ told you this wasn't pretty! Funny thing was that it didn't hurt the bunny at all, that tissue must have been dead or the worm puts a deadener out I guess.....interesting. No blood either. Anyway, without getting to entirely GROSS, I managed to massage and extract the worm out with little to no pain to the rabbit...

This was not a small worm....just in case you are wondering! Here it is...like a small grub - GROSS, GROSS......Sorry to do this to you but this story must be told.

This is the wound, the very next day....already healing up big time....Tannenbaum ate tons of rabbit food and drank lots of water so I think my veterinarian skills were quite successful. As for that nasty worm; we let Gary check it out and then we flushed it and sterilized our kitchen....even though it is only contagious through the flys laying eggs.

Here he is ~ getting the royal treatment ~ in Ellen's room ~ She made him a special recovery space!

Now that you have lost your appetite....look who learned how to make chocolate chip pancakes! I came into the kitchen and she had decorated them as you see here, so I had to document that!

Sara is back at the sewing machine ~ YAY!!! We raided my mother's attic last summer "Visiting Tennessee"

and found some very, cool (outdated) clothes from the 1980s and 1990s.

This is one of the dresses.

This dress was a knit dress, all one piece, flowing and hung between the knees and ankles...probably from the 1990s as that was the style back then...dresses and skirts hung almost to the ankles. Pardon the hair, she was not expecting me to appear and take photos and will probably not

be happy with me when she sees this post!

Unfortunately, Sara just sits at the sewing matching and before you know it she is done with a project. I happened to walk upstairs in the middle of this one, so I didn't get a before pic of the dress before she started. She cut the "dress" in half and shortened and gathered the skirt, then sewed it back onto the top and sewed a zipper into the top and skirt which is now a dress!

It looks adorable and is so stylish!

I took this photo with my IPhone to send to my mother, who previously owned the dress, so she could see the newly remade version.

Additionally, Sara just starred in a play written by her Speech teacher/Drama Coach...it was EXCELLENT!!! He has written musical, and comedies but never a serious tragedy like this play. After months of daily practice, they performed to sellout crowds this weekend, and it was awesome! There wasn't a dry eye in the crowd, including most of the men.

In a nutshell, on the left side of the stage, Tommy is the Sargent of a group of Marines in Afghanistan, and they are stuck, fighting it out to the death while waiting on reinforcements to come....and on the right side, his young bride is planning a wedding , expecting him to come home in a week. Sara is one of her bridesmaids that is helping her to plan the wedding....Sadly, Tommy and all but one of his men do not make it out alive...it is a tear jerker to say the least. and a tough play for high-school students to pull off, but they did an incredible job! Oscar worthy!
Real blood, guns, costumes, etc...very believable.

After every play, the actors line up and greet the audience ~ a nice tradition!

And finally, we end with the birth of a new litter of baby rabbits.....

I did not notice this until I saw this photo ~ but look at the size of that baby's foot..it is twice the size of it's sibling...I am thinking I may have a

"Guinness World Book of Record's rabbit foot" here.

Don't get any ideas...that rabbit foot will not be detached from this rabbit!!!!

Cutie Pies - baby bunnies are born naked and are completely covered with hair in two days...these

rabbits are about four days old.

Honey is a very watchful mother.

More bunny cuteness

These are the four bunnies in the cage next to them, and they are adorable....I can't

stop photographing them!

This is the black one that has managed to get a name...which probably

means a home with us!

I love this photo...I placed the clover right outside of their "birthing box" to entice them to come out, and here they are...barely poking their little heads out...so cute!

This was their first real meal...We are weaning them and starting them on Rabbit food.

Mama wasn't ever far away...I gave them food and she overlooked the whole process...he ate for a bit and then hopped over for a nuzzle!

And finally, our little black, friend....not sure what Ellen named it! He was enjoying the clover I gave them. We often pick clover and grass to give them "treats" to eat. I love the way

Mama is just looking over it's shoulder.

Now that we are caught up, please leave a comment and let me know what you have been up to!

Follow by Email

Subscribe To

About Me

I am "Mom" to three incredible, wonderful girls (I know, I know ~ I am a bit biased - but hey, aren't all Mamas...that is what we are here for ~ to champion our children!); a wonderful husband who doesn't get near enough credit in my blog; three gorgeous girl dogs; 15 egg producing chickens; one squawking cockatiel, two independent cats, 13 baby producing rabbits ~ yes the saying "breed like rabbits" is true; one cooing dove; seven hay and feed eating horses; two turtles that do nothing; and a partridge in a pear tree (had to say it!). This is a random blog that depicts a bit of what our crazy life is like when you mix them all together! If you have a minute ~ become a follower! If you like my posts ~ leave a comment. Enjoy the ride......